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"EPA Ripped Over Foot-Dragging on PCB Tests at Schools"

"Parents, scientists and officials blasted the federal Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday at a hearing on whether to relax safety standards for toxins in public schools.

"We're questioning the motives behind this," said Deputy Bronx Borough President Aurelia Green. "It doesn't look like it's being done in the interest of students and school employees."

The hearing -- on a proposal to change limits set in 1979 on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - comes after a Daily News investigation found PCBs in the caulking of several public schools at levels thousands of times higher than what's considered safe.

When PCBs were outlawed for most uses 30 years ago, EPA regulations declared that anything with concentrations of 50 parts-per-million must be removed."